Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Robert E. Roden
July 5, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
(Also present is Mr. Roden’s wife, Jean Roden)
Clip 3
Robert E. Roden: When the war started, the Idaho was in Iceland and they was doing runs in Europe because Europe was at war, you remember, and we was supporting them. I wasn't aboard ship, but I'm talking about the Idaho ship itself. Then after the war started which started, you know, at Pearl Harbor was in '41, December the seventh, I think, '41, well then the Idaho was sent back to the Pacific Ocean. They went to the Hawaiian Islands where all them ships were sunk.
Clint Alley: Um-hm.
RER: But they didn’t stay there long, and then they come right on up to Bremerton, Washington and that's where I caught it.
CA: Okay.
RER: In '42.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: And from 1942 and I think I went aboard in December of '42―
CA: Um-hm.
RER: ―after I got out of boot camp and I stayed aboard it until after the war was over and they signed the peace treaties in, in Tokyo. We was in the, we was the third ship in the parade going into Tokyo Harbor. They had all the, all the ships that participated, especially at Okinawa, lined up and went in there in single file.
CA: Hum.
RER: The Japs had all the gun and placements that they had, had them all turned around, breached, and they was giving us a salute as we come in.
CA: Wow!
RER: So it was sort of a ceremony that people didn't know too, too much about, you know.
CA: Yeah, yeah.
RER: That's when ole, they signed the peace treaty there in Tokyo Bay.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: So that was the end of the war. We come back, come back to Honolulu and stayed there a couple of days and come on through the Panama Canal and come on up on the west coast and I left the ship in December―
CA: Okay, okay.
RER: ―of '45.
CA: So you stayed, you stayed with the Idaho all through the war?
RER: Right.
CA: Okay. What was the food like on board the ship?
RER: Well, we had the best cooks the Navy had. The Navy, to me has always been proud of their cooks so we had a galley aboard our ship that we had cooks; they could do anything with what they got. At one time when we was up in the Aleutian Islands, now our primary reason to even going into the Aleutian Islands was to, to take Attu and Kiska, was two islands that the Japs had landed on and was occupying them. And we took them back over. We took some prisoners aboard ship and brought them back to the states when we come back. And, ah, while we was up there, we was just up there as, as bait, trying to bait the Jap fleet to come up for a big battle. But they wouldn't come. They was down there at Midway and whatnot, in the Pacific concentrating on them. And we was trying to draw them up in the Bering Sea for a big battle. And, I mean, we, there was other ships up there besides us, I mean, there was a couple more battleships and whatnot. But we was the first battleship to ever go into the Bering Sea. We got that on our record. But anyway, while we was there, the people that was supposed to supply us with, with ah, stores and whatnot was supposed to meet us at a certain point. And the Merchant Marines was supposed to bring merchant ships out and bring supplies to us. They didn't show up. Well, during that time the Merchant Marines was on strike in Seattle, Washington, all over the United States, I reckon. And they was on strike because they, see they didn't belong to the service, they, they are merchant ships. But we was depending on them to supply us. So they didn't show up all the time we was on maneuvers up there. And we'd get, we’d spot a sub every now and then. Back in them days the subs, submarines even the Japanese submarines they were fortified up there. They had submarines up there. They'd have to surface to charge their batteries at night. They’re not like they are now. They've got a lot more modern sub now than what they did then. But at that time they had to, they had to surface and they'd surface at night and we was under heavy fog all the time we was up there in the Aleutian Islands, where it was real foggy. And so they, they would surface to charge their battery. Well we got, got credit for knocking one of them out that surfaced. What I started to tell you was about the Merchant Marines. When they went on strike our supplies, our food supply went down. I mean we didn't have the supply that we started off with and our, our make-up supply, our supply that we carried aboard ship at that time, if we did get supply was just rice.
CA: Hum.
RER: You know, you could take rice and cook it and it expands you know and you could haul a whole lot of little rice in a container so we carried that for emergency supply. So for about six weeks up there, while we was up there, until the President declared there wouldn't be no more strikes during World War II. He put a coincidence to that, you know, so when, when they come out and they started supplying us again we had to live on rice. And we'd have fried rice for breakfast, stewed rice for dinner, and camouflage rice for supper. They'd mix something with it; I don't know what it was. But we, we lived on rice for about six weeks up there.
CA: Oh, my goodness.
RER: ‘Cause we, that's, that's one little ole incidents I thought maybe I'd tell you about that we had when we was there.
CA: Your wife said something about the Japanese fruit cake.
RER: Huh?
CA: What was that about the Japanese fruit cake?
RER: Well, my mother, I think it was while we was at the Marshall Islands. I think it was in 1944 during the time that we was at, in between Gilbert and the Marshall Islands campaign. She baked me a fruit cake. And she had it all wrapped up and ever—she sent it about the first of December of '44 I believe it was, might have been '43. I didn't get it until about March. We didn't have air mail like they do now. Everything had to come more or less by ship. And it had to be when a ship would be coming over. And ah, they didn't have the service they have now see, I mean modern times. So it took that long for that cake to get there.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: But it was well preserved when it got there. And it was well ate, too. But everybody, course when anybody’d get anything like that from home, you know, everybody gets part of it.

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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Robert E. Roden
July 5, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
(Also present is Mr. Roden’s wife, Jean Roden)
Clip 3
Robert E. Roden: When the war started, the Idaho was in Iceland and they was doing runs in Europe because Europe was at war, you remember, and we was supporting them. I wasn't aboard ship, but I'm talking about the Idaho ship itself. Then after the war started which started, you know, at Pearl Harbor was in '41, December the seventh, I think, '41, well then the Idaho was sent back to the Pacific Ocean. They went to the Hawaiian Islands where all them ships were sunk.
Clint Alley: Um-hm.
RER: But they didn’t stay there long, and then they come right on up to Bremerton, Washington and that's where I caught it.
CA: Okay.
RER: In '42.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: And from 1942 and I think I went aboard in December of '42―
CA: Um-hm.
RER: ―after I got out of boot camp and I stayed aboard it until after the war was over and they signed the peace treaties in, in Tokyo. We was in the, we was the third ship in the parade going into Tokyo Harbor. They had all the, all the ships that participated, especially at Okinawa, lined up and went in there in single file.
CA: Hum.
RER: The Japs had all the gun and placements that they had, had them all turned around, breached, and they was giving us a salute as we come in.
CA: Wow!
RER: So it was sort of a ceremony that people didn't know too, too much about, you know.
CA: Yeah, yeah.
RER: That's when ole, they signed the peace treaty there in Tokyo Bay.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: So that was the end of the war. We come back, come back to Honolulu and stayed there a couple of days and come on through the Panama Canal and come on up on the west coast and I left the ship in December―
CA: Okay, okay.
RER: ―of '45.
CA: So you stayed, you stayed with the Idaho all through the war?
RER: Right.
CA: Okay. What was the food like on board the ship?
RER: Well, we had the best cooks the Navy had. The Navy, to me has always been proud of their cooks so we had a galley aboard our ship that we had cooks; they could do anything with what they got. At one time when we was up in the Aleutian Islands, now our primary reason to even going into the Aleutian Islands was to, to take Attu and Kiska, was two islands that the Japs had landed on and was occupying them. And we took them back over. We took some prisoners aboard ship and brought them back to the states when we come back. And, ah, while we was up there, we was just up there as, as bait, trying to bait the Jap fleet to come up for a big battle. But they wouldn't come. They was down there at Midway and whatnot, in the Pacific concentrating on them. And we was trying to draw them up in the Bering Sea for a big battle. And, I mean, we, there was other ships up there besides us, I mean, there was a couple more battleships and whatnot. But we was the first battleship to ever go into the Bering Sea. We got that on our record. But anyway, while we was there, the people that was supposed to supply us with, with ah, stores and whatnot was supposed to meet us at a certain point. And the Merchant Marines was supposed to bring merchant ships out and bring supplies to us. They didn't show up. Well, during that time the Merchant Marines was on strike in Seattle, Washington, all over the United States, I reckon. And they was on strike because they, see they didn't belong to the service, they, they are merchant ships. But we was depending on them to supply us. So they didn't show up all the time we was on maneuvers up there. And we'd get, we’d spot a sub every now and then. Back in them days the subs, submarines even the Japanese submarines they were fortified up there. They had submarines up there. They'd have to surface to charge their batteries at night. They’re not like they are now. They've got a lot more modern sub now than what they did then. But at that time they had to, they had to surface and they'd surface at night and we was under heavy fog all the time we was up there in the Aleutian Islands, where it was real foggy. And so they, they would surface to charge their battery. Well we got, got credit for knocking one of them out that surfaced. What I started to tell you was about the Merchant Marines. When they went on strike our supplies, our food supply went down. I mean we didn't have the supply that we started off with and our, our make-up supply, our supply that we carried aboard ship at that time, if we did get supply was just rice.
CA: Hum.
RER: You know, you could take rice and cook it and it expands you know and you could haul a whole lot of little rice in a container so we carried that for emergency supply. So for about six weeks up there, while we was up there, until the President declared there wouldn't be no more strikes during World War II. He put a coincidence to that, you know, so when, when they come out and they started supplying us again we had to live on rice. And we'd have fried rice for breakfast, stewed rice for dinner, and camouflage rice for supper. They'd mix something with it; I don't know what it was. But we, we lived on rice for about six weeks up there.
CA: Oh, my goodness.
RER: ‘Cause we, that's, that's one little ole incidents I thought maybe I'd tell you about that we had when we was there.
CA: Your wife said something about the Japanese fruit cake.
RER: Huh?
CA: What was that about the Japanese fruit cake?
RER: Well, my mother, I think it was while we was at the Marshall Islands. I think it was in 1944 during the time that we was at, in between Gilbert and the Marshall Islands campaign. She baked me a fruit cake. And she had it all wrapped up and ever—she sent it about the first of December of '44 I believe it was, might have been '43. I didn't get it until about March. We didn't have air mail like they do now. Everything had to come more or less by ship. And it had to be when a ship would be coming over. And ah, they didn't have the service they have now see, I mean modern times. So it took that long for that cake to get there.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: But it was well preserved when it got there. And it was well ate, too. But everybody, course when anybody’d get anything like that from home, you know, everybody gets part of it.